US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump walk on the South Lawn of the White House before boarding Marine One in Washington, DC, USA, on Wednesday, December 23, 2020.
Chris Kleponis | Bloomberg | Getty Images
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will return to the White House on Thursday, where they will break their long vacation in Palm Beach and skip a New Year’s Eve at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
The announcement came days before Congress would wrap up President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, an almost inevitable outcome, but a result several Republicans nonetheless plan to delay by filing objections.
The president and first lady will depart Florida for Washington at 11 a.m. ET, the White House said Wednesday night.
The departure was unexpected: news outlets reported that guests attending Mar-a-Lago’s annual New Year’s Eve gala had been told Trump would appear at the event. CNN, referring to a member of the resort, reported on Tuesday that at least 500 reservations for the party had been confirmed.
A receptionist at Mar-a-Lago declined to comment on the party. The White House declined to comment.
Since arriving in Palm Beach on December 23, Trump has made comments largely focused on the election, which he refuses to admit to Biden, despite repeated failure in court to overturn or invalidate the electoral college votes for the Democrat to make.
Those voters cast their votes on December 14; Biden won 306 votes against Trump’s 232.
Amid frequent trips to his golf club, Trump has taken to Twitter to pressure Republican senators to “step up and fight for president,” while spreading a series of baseless and debunked conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud.
On Wednesday, Missouri Republican Josh Hawley became the first senator to heed that call, saying he will object when Congress counts the votes next week.
Several House Republicans already vowed to contest the elections at the time. If a Member of Parliament and a senator jointly object to a state’s electoral roll, the two houses must debate separately and then vote on the objection.
Experts say there is no real chance of reversing the election results.
It is unclear how Trump plans to continue his pressure campaign in the days leading up to the certification of Biden’s victory on Wednesday.
On Sunday, he announced that he would travel to Georgia next Monday to campaign for the Republican sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, a day before their double runoff races that will determine which side controls the Senate.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will also visit Peach State to campaign for Democratic candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock ahead of Tuesday’s election.